A rotating shaft is required for many activities inside and outside of industry. For example, rotating shafts may be used for transportation in ships, driving pumps, drilling and energy generation. The rotating shaft provides rotational movement as an input, either directly or through a gear box or the like, to the output device, for example, the ship propeller, the pump or drill input shaft, or in the case of energy generation, to a generator, for example, a three phase generator, which in turn utilizes the rotational movement to generate electricity.
In each of these and in other applications, an input force is required to rotate the shaft. The input force may be provided using a direct fuel source, e.g. gasoline engine, or electrical energy, e.g. electric motor. In the case of energy generation, there are various methods to generate electric energy, for example, renewable energy sources including biofuel, biomas, geothermal, hydro power; solar power; tidal power; wave power; and wind power and non-renewable energy sources including thermal power plants (burning different fuels like: charcoal, coal, diesel, gasoline, etc.) and nuclear power plants.
Only a few countries in the world have rivers large enough to construct hydropower plants and some that do are not ready to construct hydropower plants. Similarly, only a few countries have the technology to install nuclear power plants. The availability of coal, petroleum and other fuels varies geographically. The needs are different in different countries, and the solutions vary from country to country.
In addition, the price of oil is growing very rapidly (today price USD 120/barrel). In less than twenty years, the price grew more than 900%. In addition, if the consumption of the oil in the world continues at current rates, the supply will be depleted relatively quickly, with some speculation that supply would be exhausted before the end of the twenty-first century.
In addition to the above concerns, current energy sources have varying degrees of negative environmental impacts (e.g. the April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, disaster in Fukushima—Japan March 2011, Gulf oil spill—April 2010) and have been restricted regarding the various dangers. In view of the dangers and environmental impact, many energy generation facilities are located in remote locations, thereby requiring increased expense to transport the energy and energy loss during such transportation.
It is desirable to provide a system for rotating a shaft which minimizes danger, environmental impact, and is generally renewable.